Outlook 365 nightmare

Got the new PC. No problem transferring stuff from my backup hard drive.
Downloaded Microsoft 365 and Word, Excel and Outlook all on my desktop and then the fun began. I created a new account in the classic Outlook because I understand that the new version doesn't accept pst files.

Went through the process of pointing where the files were backed up and waited. I ended up with a complete mess and after reinstalling 365 and getting rid of new outlook when I try to open the classic outlook app it's asking for the pst location even though my account has been removed. I can't get into the account set up so how do I sort this mess out. HELP HELP

johne said:

it's asking for the pst location even though my account has been removed

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johne said:

pointing where the files were backed up

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So tell it where the pst file is backed up. You don't need an email account to give it a path to a pst file.
But I do hope you mean, where you've copied the backed up files to a covenient local folder not your real backups.


Denis

All of my backups (documents, photos etc) are on an external hard drive including the email back up. Nothing is on the cloud or onedrive.
Should it be somewhere else? When I open Outlook it immediately asks for the backup password so is that normal? It then takes me through the import/export steps.

johne said:

When I open Outlook it immediately asks for the backup password ... is that normal?

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No.
But I thought you said it asked where the pst file was.

johne said:

it's asking for the pst location

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johne said:

... asks for the backup password ...

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If it asks for the pst file password then surely it must be able to access the pst file in order to know that it has a password on it.

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johne said:

Should it be somewhere else?

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If I was giving an application access to a file from my backups, I'd actually give it access to a copy of my backup not the backup itself.
I'd copy the required parts of my backup, in this case the pst file, into some convenient local folder and then disconnect my backup drive so it could not possibly get corrupted by anythign.


Denis

johne said:

I can't get into the account set up so how do I sort this mess out. HELP HELP

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Control Panel > Mail (Microsoft Outlook)

Thank you. Yes the back up is there but I expected it to tell me to set up the account first. I will continue with it tomorrow and before I do zi will copy the back up.pst file first and locate it somewhere on the C drive. Then hopefully the risk of everything going to will be removed

Brief note, what you should be looking at

johne said:

back up.pst file first and locate it somewhere on the C drive

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PST files for Outlook live in “Documents > Outlook” by default.

You don’t need to open Outlook to configure mail, especially if you’re having issues. Because I am stubborn and sometimes refuse to change, I have always setup my PST email address via Control Panel > Mail (Microsoft Outlook) before I even open Outlook for the first time.

Well ladies and gents the .pst issues have been solved.

As suggested by antspants I opened control panel with large icons and went into the email app. I removed the single profile and added my own. Once that had been done I opened the Outlook Classic app and instead of requesting the .pst backup password it took me straight to the account set up. I followed the prompts and bingo I had an email account. I had already checked the online version of my mail provider (BT) and my folders were all there
Very quickly my emails from the last few days downloaded and initially I thought that was it
I opened one of the folders used the pre-view settings and it contained everything from that online folder. Checked all of the other folders using pre-view and absolutely everything was there, even some emails from many years ago regarding a serious injury to my son. No need for the .pst file. Happy chappy here so huge thank you to you guys who helped me, I am very grateful.